fallout from a restless mind

#blogjammin: it’s friday night

good evening from a mildly moist, but fully-swinging greenbelt_

after a later-than-ideal arrival on site, around half past the middle of the day, the afternoon passed in a blur of ground sheets, important people finding, team meetings and food scouting. tonight, however, was all about the noise being well and truly brought on mainstage.

following on from a band who were able to draw a large crowd and please them well despite not having a name, my evening was jump started when i started jumping to Ugly Duckling. Andy C, Dizzy Dustin and the brilliant Young Einstein rocked it fresh mode and guided an initially modest & fairly hesitant, but steadily increasing crowd through a flurry of rain and a selection of treats from their back catalogue.

the UD really are a class act. they always come across as three guys who really enjoy their job, and they play the oldies with as much grace and style as the ‘cuts’ from the latest ‘joint’. we got the theatrical arrival of The Duke (Einstein’s gold chain of Eye On The… fame), which invariably introduces a rendition of that first album crowd pleaser, and it was as all as fresh and fun as it was the first time I saw them do it nearly ten years ago.

theres’ no doubt that Andy and Dizzy did their thing and worked the mic right, but as always i would want to draw special attention to the guy on the ones and twos. at a time when it’s becoming a rarer and rarer phenomenon, Einstein showed DJs everywhere how to hold it down by running the entire show on crispy cut-up, back to back slabs of vinyl – the guy is a legend.

after the Long Beach residents whipped mainstage into semi-frenzy and the sun set, british hiphop guru Ty took the stage (well, following the obligatory pause for annoying and over-the-top crowd-working to cover the tech work), and class followed class.

if it was a treat to get a stripped-down set powered by a vinyl-only beat-fiend, then it was equally so to see Ty take the stage backed by a live band that was crisp of snare and sure-footed of bassline. having been slightly slow on the uptake with regard to the latest album (Special Kind of Fool), i didn’t recognise that many tunes, but along with the rest of mainstage i was a happy mixture of transfixed by the smooth vocals and a puppet to the raw beat.

all in all a great start to proceedings.

i’m now off back to mainstage to catch the end of Courtney Pine and then to Centaur for this year’s first helping of Last Orders.

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on a personal note, loyal RQT fans will be glad to hear that despite getting his felt a little damp in a short rain shower, the #gastrognome was soon in his element after having located a van serving the pies he enjoyed so much at the Festival of South West Food & Drink earlier on this year. almost immediately after having finished his steak pie and minty peas, and before i’d even tucked him in, he was fast asleep in his mini tent.

Related

As someone who won’t be on site till monday this was the blog i was looking for. Thank you. Twitter seems dull of out of context quotes and folks tweeting they are in the tiny tea tent. Best write up of the music i’ve found yet. Cheers.

For the weekend, I’m writing for the official greenbelt_ blog and just posting a selection of highlights here, so head on over to http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog for more of the same.

Maybe see you on Monday, although, of course, neither of us will know.

It’s dryish now, but it’s cold at night and the skies are leaden – bring wellies and a vest.

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a place designed to house thought excesses. if my mind is archimedes' bath, the water my general thoughts and archimedes himself the kind of clever thoughts i'm supposed to put in my work, then what you will find here is what escapes over the brim as the skinny boffin lowers himself into the tub. it exists, further indulging the analogy, on the basis that it might be necessary to collect and measure the runoff in order to know the volume of the person.